New winner is eze88888
Though the 2018 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event was held nearly a year-and-a-half ago, the official champion was not decided until this past weekend.
PokerStars has disqualified the September 2018 winner of the $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event, “wann2play”, awarding the top prize to “eze88888”.
wann2play’s $1.353 million was redistributed to the other players who cashed
When heads-up at the final table, the two players agreed to a deal, with Argentina’s eze88888 taking $1.257 million of the remaining prize pool and wann2play raking in $1.153 million. They competed for the $200,000 left over and a Platinum Pass, which wann2play won.
After the recent ruling, PokerStars awarded eze88888 $1.529 million, the amount that would have been the first prize without the deal. wann2play’s $1.353 million was redistributed to the other players who cashed.
Reasons for DQ a mystery
PokerStars has not publicly revealed why wann2play was disqualified from the 2018 WCOOP Main Event.
suspicions that something was amiss near the end of the tournament
According to PocketFives, eze88888 said he had his suspicions that something was amiss near the end of the tournament. He reviewed hands and spoke with other players, eventually becoming more convinced that something was up. He stayed in touch with PokerStars for months after the event.
Congratulating the new winner on Twitter, UK poker pro Max Silver noted that the online poker room had frozen wann2play’s account in the meantime.
Nothing is really known about wann2play, except that his (or her) account is registered in the Netherlands and that they gained entry into the 2018 WCOOP Main Event via a $530 satellite.
Second WCOOP winner to be DQed
The 2018 PokerStars WCOOP had a three-tier buy-in structure, with “low,” “medium,” and “high” buy-in versions of the 62 events. The lone exception was the Main Event, which had just a $55 low tier and a $5,200 high tier. The latter was the showcase event, the tournament which eze88888 has now won.
The event fielded 2,044 entries, generating a $10.220 million prize pool. This just beat the $10 million guarantee.
This is the second time that the winner of the PokerStars WCOOP was disqualified. The first was in 2007, when TheV0id was found to have violated the site’s rules.